


bark at the hand that feeds

by cinderrain



Category: D.Gray-man
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Harm to Animals, M/M, Zombies, but only slightly - Freeform, really just mild mentions of violence, unsafe medical practices that a two-second google search advised against
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-20
Updated: 2018-04-20
Packaged: 2019-04-25 08:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,837
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14374539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderrain/pseuds/cinderrain
Summary: “Uh.” Lavi clears his throat. “Hey.”His sofa-stranger jumps, his shoulder bumping the door and making it clatter, and then he’s a wolf. There is a wolf in Lavi’s apartment. Bristling at him.Well.





	bark at the hand that feeds

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [LaviYuu Week 2018.](https://laviyuu-week.tumblr.com)  
> Prompt: Wind | Autumn, Strength, Wild, Unstable, Fresh

It’s a nice evening, for all that it’s middle of winter, and Lavi hums along to the radio as he drives. The frost crunches under his tires, and the streetlights are few and far between. He stayed a little too late marking midterms for the class he’s TAing, but it’s not too bad because at two in the morning there aren’t any other cars on the road. It’s a small road too, winding through a forested area, and few people use it even during daylight hours.

He’s watching the road and driving carefully -- well aware of how tired he is, and he’s in the middle of nowhere -- but not carefully enough to avoid a dark blur bursting out from the trees just a couple meters in front of him.

He slams on the brake, but he can’t afford to swerve too far in either direction; the trees are too dense to drive between, and he doesn’t like the idea of smashing into a solid trunk any more than he wants to hit whatever that is.

_Thud_. He skids to a stop a few seconds after; the animal was thrown a little ways ahead on the road, and it isn’t moving.

Aw, geez. He fumbles his phone out of his pocket, hits the emergency lights on the off chance that another car is coming down the road at this hour (there’s no room to pull off to the side), and hops out of the car.

Lying just out of reach of Lavi’s headlights is a man in a muddy t-shirt and tattered jeans. Huh. He could have sworn the shape that he hit was distinctly four-legged. His memory is very good. All his teachers have commented on it.

Ah, well, the guy’s unconscious so it’s not like Lavi can ask him about it right now. He gently rolls him onto his back and tries to recall his basic first aid training. It doesn’t seem like anything vital is broken, but there could be internal bleeding. He can call an ambulance, but it might take an hour to get here, with the time of night and the location. It’s a bit too cold to wait on the pavement. And there’s the thing where Lavi is pretty damn sure he wasn’t human five minutes ago.

He decides he’ll be as careful as possible, and if when the guy wakes up he wants to go to the hospital after all, Lavi’s apartment will be closer to there anyway. He pulls his car up so he doesn’t have to drag the guy too far, and secures him in the backseat lying down.

He’s never been more glad that he lives on the ground floor. He sets the stranger down on the couch, and frowns down at him. If all this moving didn’t wake him up, Lavi doubts... He shakes him a little anyway, making a token effort. He doesn’t feel like explaining this situation to paramedics, especially when he doesn’t know if the man is going to be aggressive when he wakes up, but he also doesn’t want a stranger to die on his couch overnight.

He kneels down next to the couch and lifts the shirt, feeling skeevy. Bruises, possibly cracked ribs, maybe a sprained or fractured wrist and ankle. No swelling of the abdomen, as far as he can tell.

He’s feeling tired and irresponsible. It’ll be fine.

He gets the stranger a blanket and goes to bed himself.

 

Lavi wakes up to the sound of someone moving around in the living room. He stares up at the ceiling for a few seconds, listening, trying to figure out why-- Oh. Right.

Lavi spends the next twenty seconds convincing himself that yes, he does have to deal with the problem. No, he probably can’t make coffee first.

The guy seems to have just gotten up, too, and he’s opened the doors to the bathroom and kitchen. He’s currently pawing at the sliding lock on the door, to little success.

“Uh.” Lavi clears his throat. “Hey.”

His sofa-stranger jumps, his shoulder bumping the door and making it clatter, and then he’s a wolf. There is a wolf in Lavi’s apartment. Bristling at him.

Well.

At least he doesn’t have to figure out how to bring it up. The downside, of course, is that there is a wolf in his apartment.

How to proceed from here...? “Um.” He steps forward, one hand offered, and the wolf flips out, growling and knocking over a couple of the items on his coffee table in his haste to get the couch between him and Lavi. “Whoa, sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

He settles a little and blinks. Lavi’s not sure if that means comprehension or warning.

“How about... I go make some breakfast, and you sit down.” He starts backing toward the kitchen, to give the wolf some space. “I’m not going to stop you from leaving or anything! It’s just, you’re injured, yeah? At least let me help you with that before you go.”

He slips behind the dividing wall and sets to work microwaving some mashed potatoes and scraping the leftovers in the fridge into some semblance of a sandwich. Bread goes with anything, it’s very useful. It takes about five minutes, all told, and he hopes that’s enough for the guy to have figured out what he wants.

When he steps back out, the stranger is back in human form, picking up some of the books he knocked off the table and looking slightly apologetic. When he hears Lavi, he snaps back upright (wincing a little) and levels a glare at him. Lavi sets the plates down and decides to sit on the floor, across the table from him, rather than try to share the couch.

“I’m Lavi, nice to meet you.” He hangs on to his customary introductions-grin, for now, instead opting for a curious stare.

“Kanda,” the guy mumbles after a second or two. His gaze flickers to the food, and then back up to Lavi.

“It’s for you, you can have it.” Lavi watches him carefully. “You can have both, if you want, I wasn’t sure how hungry you’d be.” Another pause, so Lavi adds, “how’re your injuries?”

Kanda picks up the plate and balances it on his knee, still watching Lavi. “They’re fine.” He shakes out his right wrist to demonstrate. He’s right; the bruises are fading already. After a few more awkward seconds, he starts in on the food, slow at first and then inhaling it.

Lavi pushes the other plate at him, but Kanda hesitates and shakes his head. Lavi shrugs and picks up a falling-apart sandwich. “So what brought you to that part of the woods at two in the morning?” he asks, conversationally, but Kanda still tenses. “The part of the woods directly in front of my car, to be specific.”

“I was chasing something.”

Lavi senses that he probably won’t get anything more down that line of inquiry. “Are you going to be okay, then? Going... back.”

“Why do you care?” Kanda growls, frustrated and finally showing it.

Lavi can work with that. He spends a lot of time frustrating people as a hobby. “Making sure you don’t sue me for hitting you,” he says, tone light. It’s actually because he’s fascinated by this other side of the world he seems to have stumbled into, but he’s afraid that if he says that Kanda might take it the wrong way.

“Hm.” Kanda doesn’t seem to believe him, but that makes two of them being evasive, and Lavi’s pretty sure that’s fair. Kanda puts the plate down. “I think I’ll get going now.”

Lavi doesn’t hide his disappointment. “All right. Just try not to get run over again, yeah?”

Kanda snorts. “You didn’t run me over, you just hit me. Try to pay attention to the road next time.”

 

The second time, Lavi finds Kanda between the bins by the side of his building as he’s taking out the recycling. He’s conscious, huddled in wolf form against the wall, and a drying trail of blood leads from him to the park behind the building. Lavi holds the door open on his way back in, and to his relief Kanda follows, limping a little.

“I didn’t think you were going to come back,” Lavi comments after they’re both inside and Kanda’s changed.

“I didn’t mean to,” Kanda admits, scowling. “The instincts are stupid when I’m in that form, anywhere I’ve eaten is all clear, apparently.”

That startles a laugh out of Lavi. “So you’re back because I fed you? That’s amazing.”

“Shut up.” Kanda doesn’t put much heart into it, though, so Lavi feels free to keep talking.

“You keep getting hurt. What was it this time?”

Kanda looks reticent, but Lavi’s ready this time, armed with foodstuffs. He presses a muffin into Kanda’s hands. Kanda flicks a look at him, all _I know what you’re doing and it’s not going to work_ , but he sighs. “There was a war, a decade or so ago.”

"A war?" That wasn't where Lavi was expecting this to go.

Kanda hums an affirmative, looking impatient. "It's over now, but the clean-up's not." He chews on his muffin, frowns at the poppyseed.

"Clean-up?" Lavi feels a little stupid just echoing words from Kanda's explanation, but to be fair he's been thrown head-first into this whole magical creature thing. Okay, so he put himself here. It's still a lot to take in.

"The..." Kanda bites his lip, thinking. "They're not zombies. But they are. Reanimated. Kind of." He sighs. "It's not an infection, but their blood is poisonous."

"Isn't that... dangerous? For you, I mean." Lavi struggles to imagine how a fight would go for a wolf if he couldn't use his teeth.

Kanda shrugs. "I'm immune. I heal fast enough."

"Those are not the same thing." Lavi drops it, though. He's pushed enough, outsider that he is. Still, he can't help but ask, "is there anything I can do to help?"

"What?" Kanda finishes the rest of his muffin. "Why?"

"I don't know, forget I mentioned it." Lavi wants to see more of this whole situation, but he sees the pointless danger in him being there now. "It's good to know that it's not a lone wolf deal, though."

Kanda snorts, unamused, and Lavi doesn't mention that it wasn't really supposed to be a joke. "You're doing enough of not minding your own business by letting me in here to eat all your food and bleed on your couch." It almost sounds like a thank you.

"Right! You're bleeding." Lavi stands up, heads to the medicine cabinet (it's a little drawer next to the sink, okay, he's not a fully-equipped hospital).

"It's healing," Kanda reminds him. He lifts a corner of his shirt, and he's right, it does look more like a scratch than whatever it used to be that had him bleeding all up the alleyway.

Lavi gets the band-aids, anyway. "These are more just for peace of mind, anyway." He peels one open, glances at Kanda.

"Yours or mine?" Kanda doesn't look impressed, but he also doesn't stop Lavi when he applies it to his side. They've got cartoon puppies on them. It takes like three to even begin covering up the one scratch. It's adorable. "You fuss too much."

"Cluck, cluck," Lavi sighs obediently. "Is this leftover guilt or because I find you attractive? You tell me." He hides his nervousness by industriously peeling another band-aid and not looking Kanda in the face.

The downside is, he can't tell if he's imagining the blush in Kanda's voice with his next words. "These are ridiculous anyway." He pushes Lavi's hands away, scoots back on the couch, and turns into a wolf.

Lavi jumps. Kanda huffs, and it sounds like a laugh. Lavi sees what he means, though -- most of the band-aids have migrated; some have fallen off; the rest cling to his fur awkwardly, not really helping much at all with wound protection or whatever it is they're supposed to do. Kanda tilts his head, like _see?_

"All right, point to you." He starts picking them off, careful not to pull too much at the fur. Wolves sure are big, and it definitely doesn't make him jumpy that there's one on his couch where he'd been casually chatting with an attractive acquaintance a moment ago.

Lavi drops one on Kanda's ear, just to be obnoxious, and when Kanda flicks it to try to dislodge it the band-aid stays stuck. Lavi laughs. "Hang on, I'll get it." Out of habit, he skritches behind those huge wolf-ears, and then Kanda's back in human form and Lavi's fingers are carding through his hair.

Well. That's certainly a blush.

He doesn't have time to comment on it, because then Kanda's kissing him. Soft, slow, not even a hint of nibbles almost as if Kanda's trying to prove something like this. It breaks too soon, and then the couch shifts as Kanda stands up.

"I'll see you around."

He's gone, but at least he took the rest of the muffin with him.

 

The third time, Lavi wakes up to a hurried knocking at his door. He rolls out of bed before he even registers what time it is (4:35 in the morning), and he opens the door before he checks who it is (Kanda, in human form, looking more bedraggled than he's ever seen him).

Kanda doesn't bother with greetings. He shoves himself inside and slams the door behind him, and then glowers at the locks like they did something personal to him. Lavi almost jokes something to that effect, but he sees the look on Kanda's face and the amount of dried blood (some of it's black?) crusted on his clothing and he shuts up for now.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

Kanda shakes his head. He starts dragging chairs to the door, and wow Lavi's glad he got Kanda to explain the zombie thing last time, because he'd be really freaked out right now if he didn't have an inkling of what's going on. He's still pretty freaked out. He still only barely has an inkling of what's going on.

"Do you have any windows," Kanda barks, not a question.

"Yes, why wouldn't I, oh right yeah okay," and Lavi goes to lock and barricade those too. He doesn't remember the little bathroom window in time, and Kanda yanks him back by the collar of his shirt and slams the bathroom door shut. He blocks that one off too, and Lavi can hear weak thuds coming from the other side.

Finally, it seems like everything they can do is done, and Kanda stands breathing a little too deep a little too fast in the middle of his living room. Lavi sits him down on the couch.

"What happened?"

"Bigger mob than I thought," Kanda says, almost ashamed. "Had to call in reinforcements."

Lavi glances out the window. He hears, faintly, the sounds of wolf-jaws snapping shut and screeches of pain. "Zombies, huh. Wow, fuck," he says, eloquent as always. Something slams into the window he's looking through and leaves a streak of black blood smeared all down the middle of it. "Well, shit."

"It's not your job." Kanda gets his attention with a tap to the knee. "They can take care of it." And then he rolls up his pant leg, and his ankle is savaged to hell and Lavi's just amazed at how he could possibly have been walking on it, and then he realizes that Kanda's basically _asking_ to be patched up.

"I'm glad you came here," Lavi mutters, genuinely touched.

"Every time I'm in the area I always end up here," Kanda grumbles, failing to sound at all displeased about the situation. "I never get a chance to find out what else is around here."

"Sure, keep telling yourself that." Lavi wants to tease, but underneath the irritation he can imagine how scared and frustrated Kanda must be. His people are out there fighting; it's not the time to talk about what happened last time. (Lavi's almost glad that that conversation has to wait, to be honest.)

He gets out the first-aid kit he'd gone out and bought after last time. "They can take care of it," he reminds Kanda, with his own words. "It's not your job anymore."

"Mh." Kanda sits through Lavi's ineffective disinfecting for a good few minutes before he gives up and shifts form. Lavi doesn't complain when he takes up the entire couch; he sits on the ground, leaning his back against it, and pats Kanda on the head every so often. Wolf Kanda chews on Lavi's bandanna a bit. He laughs and gets him some ham to nibble instead.

It takes less than half an hour for the sounds outside to die down, and Kanda gets back into human form to check out the window. "All clear," he reassures Lavi.

And then: "Do you want to come meet my family?"

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to mywriteclub.com for helping me get through the second half of this fic! I found it literally an hour and a half ago, which speaks to how fast I write under a timer.  
> Also hoped you like it! I'm trying to get these out faster.
> 
> (I almost titled this "hungry like the wolf" help)


End file.
